I'm wanting to buy an external hard drive with 1TB. I use bootcamp, so I'm looking for a way to store info from OS X and Windows. Can I plug the external into both OS's or will I need to partition it or something. What should I do? Thanks. 
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Looking to buy external harddrive
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Yes, you will need to partition using Disk Utility
MR Guide: File Systems
NTFS-3G allows OS X to read/write NTFS (Windows)
MacDrive allows Windows to read/write HFS+ (Mac OS X)
FAT32 can be read/write for both, but is limited to 4 GB files
Use WinClone to clone your Boot Camp partition
I recommend the Western Digital MyBook 1TB
Look on Amazon
Mine works flawlessly
Woof, Woof - Dawg
MR Guide: File Systems
NTFS-3G allows OS X to read/write NTFS (Windows)
MacDrive allows Windows to read/write HFS+ (Mac OS X)
FAT32 can be read/write for both, but is limited to 4 GB files
Use WinClone to clone your Boot Camp partition
I recommend the Western Digital MyBook 1TB
Look on Amazon
Mine works flawlessly
Woof, Woof - Dawg
Well we have not one of the posts in a week or so...so I guess it is time again:
If you are looking for a specific brand, Western Digital is sorta the brand iThink that most people first look into it, and they are fairly cheap, have a decent warranty, a lot of options, etc and would be my recommendation if you have no clue.
A couple of other notes: Firewire is not needed, but better, if you are solely backing-up say via Time Machine, it prbly is not necessary. I'd stick to a powered drive. Remember that the disk speed is important, but the cache can often hinder performance. Building your own will likely be cheaper, but some chose not to go that route.
Everyone has their own experiences, but I imagine that most of them are positive. Sure, there are these threads about how person x's drive failed and person y wouldn't buy anything but them. I own three drives that there are plenty of horror stories about.
No one would ever post: "I love my Western Digital 1TB Drive", unless someone posts a horror story about one. Companies ship tons of drives daily, not everyone will be perfect.
The best advice is to find one that has a good warranty and excellent customer service. And then avoid reading these threads so you don't lose any sleep.
Or you could be OCD, anal and paranoid like me and have two back-up drives...
These are all from the past two weeks or so
1TB is prbly a good size to start at it, I would say most people looking for non-mobile externals start at that size, here is a recent thread about that...
More literature found here.
Here, is another thread on 1TB Hard Drives
This one is about LaCie...
Here is another, there is some more discussion about LaCie in there...
Here is one on USB 1TB, I'd stick to Firewire...
And if all else fails, MRoogle
If you are looking for a specific brand, Western Digital is sorta the brand iThink that most people first look into it, and they are fairly cheap, have a decent warranty, a lot of options, etc and would be my recommendation if you have no clue.
A couple of other notes: Firewire is not needed, but better, if you are solely backing-up say via Time Machine, it prbly is not necessary. I'd stick to a powered drive. Remember that the disk speed is important, but the cache can often hinder performance. Building your own will likely be cheaper, but some chose not to go that route.
Everyone has their own experiences, but I imagine that most of them are positive. Sure, there are these threads about how person x's drive failed and person y wouldn't buy anything but them. I own three drives that there are plenty of horror stories about.
No one would ever post: "I love my Western Digital 1TB Drive", unless someone posts a horror story about one. Companies ship tons of drives daily, not everyone will be perfect.
The best advice is to find one that has a good warranty and excellent customer service. And then avoid reading these threads so you don't lose any sleep.
Or you could be OCD, anal and paranoid like me and have two back-up drives...
These are all from the past two weeks or so
1TB is prbly a good size to start at it, I would say most people looking for non-mobile externals start at that size, here is a recent thread about that...
More literature found here.
Here, is another thread on 1TB Hard Drives
This one is about LaCie...
Here is another, there is some more discussion about LaCie in there...
Here is one on USB 1TB, I'd stick to Firewire...
And if all else fails, MRoogle
Thanks again. I'll look better for similar posts in the future, but I appreciate your input. The links are also fantastic.
One other thing. Will I be able to partition a drive 3-way to store 1: Time Machine, 2: OS X media, and 3: Windows media? And are there any downfalls to partitioning? Thanks!
Yes, you will need to partition using Disk Utility
MR Guide: File Systems
NTFS-3G allows OS X to read/write NTFS (Windows)
MacDrive allows Windows to read/write HFS+ (Mac OS X)
FAT32 can be read/write for both, but is limited to 4 GB files
Use WinClone to clone your Boot Camp partition
I recommend the Western Digital MyBook 1TB
Look on Amazon
Mine works flawlessly
Woof, Woof - Dawg
Awesome links, MacDawg.
I have a question for you:
I just read the MR Guide on file formats. My 1TB WD external drive is formatted as NTFS, and I have almost half of it filled up. I also have a FAT32-formatted 160GB WD external.
I'm thinking of transferring movies and music over to my MBP when it arrives. Should I just transfer my files from the 1TB drive to the 160GB drive and then transfer to my MBP?
Or should I just download NTFS-3G and make it simpler for myself (since NTFS-3G, if I read correctly, can read/write from NTFS drives)?
Thanks!